Military veteran Noah Mancuso led sailors in service before dropping anchor in Knoxville
By Phil Newman | Photograph by Nathan Sparks
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 2 (March/April 2026)
Among the many colorful stories that dot San Diego-to-Knoxville transplant Noah Mancuso’s 26-year US Navy career, two stand out during a wide-ranging conversation from his office in Rocky Hill. And, as it turns out, both relate to big Hollywood movies.
For the first anecdote, it’s important to know that one of Mancuso’s first assignments early in his Navy tenure, which began in 1991, was in primary flight control aboard the dry-docked USS Belleau Wood, whose tower Maverick buzzed at the beginning of Top Gun.
When Mancuso mentions to someone that he was on Belleau Wood, they typically ask, “Oh, were you a pilot like Maverick or Goose?”
“No,” Mancuso replies, “but you know the tower they buzzed in the movie, right? And that officer who spilled coffee on himself when Tom Cruise flew by?” “Oh, no way, you were that guy?” they respond. “No . . .” Mancuso will say with a laugh. “I was the one who would have fetched that coffee for him. I wasn’t so important in those days.” Mancuso did have a role in primary flight control on the Belleau Wood, one of many positions he would occupy as he rose through the ranks to Senior Chief Petty Officer.
The second anecdote took place later in Mancuso’s career, in 2013, and involves a different Tinsel Town Tom—Hanks, this time—in his intense role as Captain Phillips in the pirate-hijacking blockbuster. As Mancuso watched the film in a crowded theater, the Navy vessel that came to the rescue toward the end looked strikingly familiar.
“All that dark space, the radar and equipment area, when they were preparing to take the shot at the bad guy, that was my ship—the USS Boxer!” Mancuso recalls. He recognized the ship’s combat information center (CIC) from two seafaring deployments.
At the moment he noticed the ship in the movie, in a spontaneous eruption of exuberance, Mancuso rose to his feet, jabbed his finger toward the screen, and yelled, “Boxer, baby! The mighty Boxer!”
Those two cinematic connections underscore both the joy Mancuso discovered during his two-and-a-half decades in the Navy and the pride and patriotism with which he approached his many assignments, both ashore and at sea.
A New Yorker in a New Land
Mancuso wasn’t a native Californian—although his wife, Michelle, did grow up in the Golden State, and the couple’s two children, Kyla and Ryan, would be raised in San Diego before Ryan started the family’s Southward migration in 2022 when he enrolled at UT-Knoxville. (He’s a Vol senior now.)
But Mancuso himself hailed from Poughkeepsie, New York, along the Hudson River, where, among other formative experiences, he developed an appreciation for American history (the FDR Presidential Library is in nearby Hyde Park), and enjoyed the blessings of a close family, with one younger sister, and a group of “great friends—we’re still close to this day.”
Mancuso’s one less-happy youthful memory is his C+ average on the way to graduating from Arlington High School in 1990. “I couldn’t wait to get out of the classroom,” he says. In an ironic twist, he would later spend many hours in classrooms instructing young sailors. But as a teen, he saw the military as a less-academic alternative to college.
In another touch of irony, he says, “I didn’t want to spend another harsh winter in Poughkeepsie,” but he was shipped to boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Illinois, where frigid weather soon welcomed him after his fall 1990 arrival. “It was the coldest winter I ever spent.”
After boot camp, in February 1991, Mancuso was shipped West to his first duty station: the Belleau Wood, aka Devil Dog, an amphibious assault ship where he worked as a “blue shirt sailor” on the flight deck and in the tower.
It was, he says, a bit of a letdown. The previous summer, Iraq had invaded Kuwait. “That’s when I knew I was going to join the military. I wanted to go to war. But the war was over before I arrived in the yards at Long Beach. And the ship I was assigned to wasn’t even on the water.”
The highlight of that first assignment was a personal one: When a best friend from New York visited, the duo made for Tijuana, where, while laying down moves on the dance floor at a club called Tequila Sunrise, Mancuso locked eyes with a Southern Californian who would become the love of his life. He and Michelle were both 19 when they met.
Moving Up the Ranks
In October of 1992, he was sent from San Diego to naval-aviation training in Millington, Tennessee, near Memphis—his first taste of the Volunteer State. “Another sailor and I were invited to a family’s house for Thanksgiving. They served us turkey and venison. That hospitality is when I knew I already loved Tennessee.”
From 1993 to 1995, he was back on the West Coast with HSL-47, the Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 47, aka the “Saberhawks,” operating the Seahawk helicopter for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare in the Pacific.
“I loved my job. For 26 years, serving this country wasn’t just a career—it was an honor.” — Noah Mancuso
In 1995, Mancuso started a stint onshore with the HSC-3 squadron, leading crews working to maintain Boeing Chinook aircraft. In 1998, it was back to school again, this time 14 weeks in Pensacola, Florida, to become proficient in nondestructive inspection (NDI), diagnosing needed updates to aircraft via X-ray, ultrasound, and other tools. “I thought, I’d much rather inspect these than to have to fix ’em anymore.”
That December, he was “back to the fleet” in San Diego as an NDI technician on the Boxer until late 2002. The vessel deployed the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEUs) with then-aircraft AV-8B harriers and CH-46 Echo helicopters, supporting amphibious landings in the Indo-Pacific region.
From 2003 to 2006, Mancuso served with the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD), which repaired aircraft components, engines, and support equipment for air stations and carriers.
From 2006 to 2009, he was Chief Petty Officer and the senior enlisted staffer with the renowned “Blackjacks” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron TWO ONE (HSC-21) at North Island.
As his career drew toward a close, in 2012 he pivoted to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squad SEVEN EIGHT (HSM-78), the “Blue Hawks,” to lead maintenance control on the MH-60R Seahawk, aka the “Romeo,” an advanced craft ideal for anti-submarine warfare.
In March of 2014, Mancuso, now having risen to Senior Chief Petty Officer, was deployed as the senior enlisted advisor for a detachment of HSM-78 aboard the USS Pinckney destroyer, overseeing aircraft maintenance as part of efforts to locate lost Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370—the fate of which, even 12 years later, remains shrouded in mystery.
“My aircraft was out in the South China Sea looking for that for two straight weeks, 20 hours a day,” he recalls. “The XO asked me, ‘Hey Senior, how comfortable would you be lowering one of your guys from the helo into an oil slick to see it’s from the missing plane?’ I said, ‘If my guys say it’s safe, then I’m with it 100 percent.’ ” As it turned out, the oil wasn’t from the lost plane.
Mancuso worked in maintenance control in San Diego until 2015, when what turned out to be his final deployment was also his first aboard an aircraft carrier—the USS George Washington. “Our squadron escorted the carrier down and around Cape Horn. We saw Peru, Chile, the Strait of Magellan—that was awesome, so beautiful—up to Brazil right before the Olympics in 2016, and then dropped off the carrier to its home port at Norfolk [Virginia].”
After a storied career, Mancuso knew the time had come to end his naval service. His retirement ceremony stands as a lifetime highlight. “So many mentors and friends I really respected showed up. It was . . .” He pauses, nearly overcome. “All my ‘boys’ flew in from New York. One of them played the national anthem on his guitar.” His parents had passed, but other family, including his mother-in-law, helped make it extra special.
“I couldn’t keep it together,” he recalls. “Laughter, crying, stories. I was humbled to see some of the great Americans who had led me and some of those I was able to lead and mentor. You’re always looking to train your replacement, and I took pride in that ability.” As he gave his retirement remarks, he invited the audience to look around. “I know I am leaving this station and this squadron in good hands.”
Proud to Be an American
Post-retirement, Mancuso took on roles in the private sector in transportation, communications, and drone development, mostly as a project administrator.
He moved with his family to Knoxville in August of 2024 and now works as a real estate agent at Wallace Realty. Right away, he picked up on the strength of the East Tennessee community toward the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to protect and defend.
“Aw, it’s unbelievable here,” he says. “The vets, the police, firefighters . . . there is a lot of respect for those who serve. I love that.”
As for reflecting on his own lengthy career in the Navy, Mancuso speaks with characteristic passion about the opportunities he had to lead and train sailors who shared his dedication to preserving the freedoms we enjoy.
“I’m just proud, proud to be an American, really. I loved my job. To do it for 26 years, it’s humbling. Making Senior Chief Petty Officer was super humbling. And being able to serve my country was an honor. That’s what it was all about. Once my family came into the picture, providing for them while serving the nation—it all made sense.”
Just like the ending to that Hollywood blockbuster that prompted Noah Mancuso to stand and deliver a Navy-strong proclamation toward the big screen.
Comments are closed.